Playing Logistics
by blak-cat23
Summary: After the battle, Korra has one last altercation with Raiko over the fate of Kuvira.


**Note**: So math tells me there's only been like a little over a hundred Avatars but since Roku said that thing about living a thousand lifetimes I just decided to keep it.

Kai had whistled for Lefty and Opal for Juicy. The group split up between the two bison. Korra limped her way onto Lefty with help from Asami and Bolin. She watched Kuvira loaded onto Juicy (and looking quite disgusted about it) with Lin and Su and Opal. They made eye contact for a brief moment before Korra's own wince forced her to turn away.

Her leg settled restlessly against the ground.

"Are you okay?" Bolin said.

"I think my leg is broken."

Asami moved down and gentle moved fabric of her pants up to examine the skin, careful not to touch it.

"I don't see any protrusions," she said.

"Does anyone have water?' Korra said.

Kai gave up the reigns for a brief moment to dig a waterskin out of the bags tied to the back of the saddle. He handed it to Asami who offered it up to Korra. With a twist of her wrist she pulled a fair amount out and let it wrap around her hand until it glowed. And then she pressed against her shin and let out a hiss through gritted teeth.

She sensed the hairline fracture knit itself back together and sudden relief when the pain stopped immediately.

"Anyone else?" Korra asked, keeping the water aglow. They shook their heads, despite their obvious wounds.

Korra let the water drop off the side of the bison and leaned back to rest.

"Still gets me, every time," Bolin said.

"Katara insisted I learn healing so much that she refused to teach me anything else for a year until I mastered it," Korra said. "It was an awful year."

A circle of laughs lightened the mood despite the flattened city beneath them and the smoke in the air. Korra took stock of her companions. Bolin seemed relatively unhurt, Asami's gloveless hands revealed burns that seemed to come from parachute straps, Tenzin looked the worst with bruises all over. Well, he was the worst besides her at least.

Asami wordlessly went to the back and began rummaging through the packs in the back until she pulled out a bag and brought it back over and kneeled next to Korra. Wordlessly, she pulled out first-aid items.

She dampened the gauze with antiseptic and, without permission or warning, pressed it to the cut on Korra's head from Kuvira's tossed earth brick. Korra hissed and jumped back but Asami anticipated this and moved with her.

"If I don't do this now, you never will," Asami said. "Tenzin there's a flash-freeze icepack in here."

She pulled away and found the said icepack, cracked it, and handed it him. Tenzin thanked her with a tire-laced voice and applied it to his head where an awful knot was beginning to form.

Asami removed the gauze and pulled out a new one, dabbed it with water, and began wiping away the blood and dust. She methodically began work on other wounds and Korra sensed something was wrong. She didn't talk, she just worked, she didn't make eye contact.

"How did you beat Kuvira?" Bolin asked while Korra kept a wary eye on Asami. "Did you glow it up?"

"I talked to her."

She felt their eyes, even Asami's, stop and lock on her for a minute.

"You…talked to her?" Bolin said.

"Yep," Korra said.

Air Temple Island was growing on the horizon in their silence, Asami continued her ministrations on Korra's wounds. And even if Asami would not look at her, Korra watched her. Her brow was creased, her pupils dilated, her muscles tense. Whatever she was concentrating on, Korra had a feeling it wasn't her wounds. And when they landed Korra caught her wrist as she went to apply a bandage.

"We'll be in in a second," Korra said to the others but keeping her eyes focused on Asami's.

When the others were gone, Korra released her wrist.

"What's going on?" Korra said.

"What do you mean?"

"What happened? Something's wrong."

She watched muscles in Asami's neck tighten and jump, even the muscles in her jaw clenched. She was sure her eyes were getting glassy.

"I don't want to talk about it now," Asami said.

"Okay.

She allowed Asami to press one last antiseptic wipe to a cut on her shoulder.

"You're okay, and that's all I want to focus on right now," Asami said.

And then she got up and headed off the bison without a word. Korra sighed and pushed herself up, her muscles were already complaining and she groaned. She climbed down the side of Lefty, clinging to his thick fur and rejoined the others on the safe ands stable ground of Air Temple Island.

Across the bay, the city was in ruins, flattened and covered in a haze of dust and smoke. In the center of it all, the beam of light signaling a doorway to the Spirit World light the land just as bright as the city did once. Various Spirits hovered around it, passed through it, some entered the world.

"Where are we putting her?" Lin said, dragging a passive Kuvira up.

Kuvira's hair was dangling, tangled, and flattened from sweat and blood. They'd stripped her of the metal she wore at some point on their journey, she was clad only in green now. Her eyes were hooded, focused on the ground, and shadows seemed to be forming around them. While Lin's forceful grip was latched onto her arm, Su had two hands holding her shoulder.

"She can have my room," Korra said.

If anyone had the energy to jump back in shock they would have. Had they expected a jail cell or more chains? Solitary confinement and starvation? Korra would not give it to them.

"Lock the door, watch her, guard her," Korra said. And like the diligent solider Lin was, she nodded and pulled Kuvira along.

The two made eye contact, Kuvira and Korra. She looked at Korra like she'd seen a ghost right into Korra's eyes. There was no room for gratitude in between the waves of surprise and hunt for ulterior motive. Korra just nodded to Kuvira and she hoped that the flicker that then passed between them was so form of understanding on her part.

"Uh, Korra?" Opal said, stepping forward. "What are you doing?" There was an edge in her voice that Korra fought hard not to react to.

"Don't take this the wrong way, because you know I think you're awesome," Bolin said. "But did she bump you in the head one too many times?"

"She put thousands of people in prison camps and you gave her a bedroom—"

"Yes, I did," Korra said, cutting her off as evenly as she could. "I won't give her the same treatment she gave others."

Opal looked ready to slap her.

"If I take her eye for all the eyes she took, then she'll only go blind," Korra said. "I need her to remember who she was before, that's the only way to help her."

The metaphor was shaky and Korra hoped it wasn't obvious she'd made it up right on the spot. She tried her best to keep the calm demeanor but she meant it. Tenzin, for one beamed from under his icepack.

"You want to help her?" Opal said. "She's imprisoned people, my family, and killed people—"

"And she knows that," Korra said. "Believe me, she knows. And she'll punish herself for it, losing Su will be a worse punishment than any I could give her."

Whatever had seeped into Korra's tone, it silenced Opal. Korra didn't disagree with her, for the longest time she wanted nothing more than to use Kuvira as her own personal punching bag. But she would be no better than her if she did. And seeing exactly what Kuvira was, on her knees in the Spirit World, she could not blindly drop a punishment on her.

"I'm her Avatar too," Korra said.

Korra was promised to Kuvira just as she was promised to all the world. And she would help her, and help rebuild the city, and help those destroyed by her actions. While Opal seemed silently enraged by it, Tenzin stepped forward and placed a hand on Korra's shoulder.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He just shook his head and smiled. Korra nodded to him, allowing the pride of his approval to show all over her face. Three years later, and she still craved the opinion of her master.

Across the way, Asami, for her part, smiled as well. Something was still pulling at the edges of her smile and she looked away after a moment. Bolin looked torn between offering support for Korra and respecting Opal's opinion.

"I need to talk to Raiko," Korra said, mentally preparing herself to do her least favorite thing in the world.

* * *

><p>Raiko had taken for his makeshift office one of Tenzin's studies. A phone line was pulled in and he sorted through piles of paper work when Korra and an entourage of the others walked into the room.<p>

He looked up happy, for once, to see Korra and even Tenzin. He remained sitting at his desk though, fingers laced together like it was some meeting about infrastructure.

"Avatar Korra," he said. "Kuvira is defeated, then."

"She's here," Korra said.

"In chains, I assume."

Korra just nodded.

"Not exactly," Opal mumbled and Korra shot her a quick glare. If Raiko heard he did not show it.

"Good, good. We can start preparations on her trial," he said. "We'll do some work on finding the appropriate jurors but I imagine the verdict will come down to the same no matter who. We haven't passed the death penalty in quite some time."

"What?" Korra said, looking up.

"The last time we passed a death sentence was almost 25 years ago. It is unfortunate though something so awful happened to warrant another one," Raiko said.

"Nothing warrants that," Korra said.

"Korra, I know it seems harsh and there is that whole campaign against the death penalty over at the university but you have to understand—"

"No, you have to understand."

She needed to calm down. A slight breeze had radiated throughout the room from an epicenter in Korra's fists. If she wasn't careful she just might go into the Avatar State in the middle of Tenzin's cramped library. Then again, there's nothing more she wanted to do right now, looking at Raiko's smug face.

"Korra, you have saved countless lives today," Raiko said. "We'll save countless more if we—"

"I saved countless lives today because I saved her life first."

It was heavy and Korra stared hard into Raiko's eyes, daring him to break eye contact. She wouldn't let this happen, not now. Once upon a time she would have reslished in the idea of someone getting what they deserved but now all she wanted was to give Kuvira what she needed.

"I won't let you do this to me again Raiko," she said. "I will walk into that courthouse and personally deliver her out of there if you try this."

"You will not be permitted to enter that trial it is an official United Republic—"

"Do you think you have anyone who can stop me?" Korra shot back. Raiko turned purple.

"You are impeding on United Republic state affairs, this is an abuse of power, you do this and you will be no different than our dear Great Uniter."

A flash of light appeared in Korra's eyes and burst of wind blew out as Korra stepped forward and slammed her hands tightly onto the desk.

"The difference," Korra said, "Between us is that this is my job. When Raava became part of the mortal world everyone agreed the Avatar would serve as the balancer of the world, would watch over it—"

"I certainly wasn't around when that was decided and neither was anyone else," Raiko said.

"Would you rather her stop?"

It was Tenzin who stepped forward now, limping and bruised, the icepack on his head melted substantially, the water dripping down his face.

"This city would be in the hands of Kuvira without Korra, the Airbenders would be extinct without her. Before that it's possible every bender in this city would be in prisons. And long ago we'd be all bowing to statues of the Fire Lord if it wasn't for Aang," Tenzin said.

Raiko did not answer. Instead he was looking down at the desk, his lips fighting to go into a full pout. His face was still terribly discolored. He took off his glasses and pinched his nose bridge tightly.

"You must understand this from my point of view," Raiko said, surprisingly evenly. "If the representative citizens of the city decree that Kuvira should be put to death and you forbid it and I allowed it…how would that make either of us look?"

"You're the one who made me care about press Raiko. My approval ratings could drop into the negatives and I would still stand by my decision," she said.

She paused before her next sentence, taking a breath and trying to muster the wisest tone she could.

"I've lived a thousand lifetimes," Korra said. "The Avatar is not an elected official, I am not subject to approval ratings. The world could hate me and it doesn't change who I am or what I will continue to do. If you try to kill her, I will stop you. And you can decided how you want to deal with me or even if you can."

And with that Korra turned out of the office and walked. She heard the president muttering something behind her, perhaps to make sure he got the last word. She slammed the door behind her in a gust of air. She hoped some of her words reached Opal as well, she didn't want her as enemy when she had been such a good friend.

She walked down the stairs and turned a few corners until she came to the residence halls. Outside her door was Su and Lin, one leaning with crossed arms and careless look against the wall, the other pacing in worry.

"I heard some yelling," Lin said.

"I'm done trying to keep Raiko happy. I won't let him return to an archaic punishment," Korra said.

"He wants her put to death," Su said quietly. Korra nodded.

"I told him I would personally intervene if anyone tried," Korra said. "Could I have a word with her?"

Korra nodded to her door and Lin stepped away to unlock the door. Su looked tired, troubled and Korra hoped Lin would be at least some comfort to her sister. She walked into the room and heard Lin close the door behind her and lock it.

Kuvira was sitting in the middle of the floor, platinum shackles on her wrists and ankles. She seemed to be meditating, eyes closed, posture held straight.

"Sorry about all the polar bear-dog fur," Korra said, going over to her dresser and digging for something.

"What's going to happen to me?"

Korra heard true fear in her voice, possibly even the voice of the young girl who had been taken in by Su.

"You'll probably be in prison for the rest of your life," Korra said. "But, I won't let them do any worse than that."

"Why?"

"Pai Sho?"

Korra pulled out her board and pieces and walked over to Kuvira, she dropped into a crossed leg, despite the pain of her tight and burned skin on her thigh, courtesy of Kuvira's blast from the gun.

"I'm no good," Korra said, setting up the board. "So go easy on me in these first few rounds."

Korra made her opening move and waited. Kuvira started at the board, her eyes occasionally moved up to Korra with dozens of questions blocking her vision until finally she sighed. Kuvira closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again she wordlessly moved her piece.

Korra spent a few hours in her room with Kuvira, silently playing game after game of Pai Sho. One game, Korra was sure Kuvira even let her win. When Korra finally left she promised to send Su in with tea and food to no response from Kuvira.

In the hallway, Asami had joined the Beifongs. She was sitting against the opposite wall, elbows on her knees, intently focused on her own hands, turning them, bending them, flexing them in front of her face. When she saw Korra, she dropped her examination and stood, exhausted.

"She doesn't say it but I'm sure she's hungry Su," Korra said and Su nodded. "She kicked my butt at Pai Sho."

"You played Pai Sho with her for three hours?" Asami said. It wasn't judging or angry, if anything it was worry. Korra shrugged.

"She's really good."

"That doesn't surprise me."

For the first time all day, Korra truly felt the weight of the fight. Her body ached all over, bruises began throbbing, cuts began stinging. She became very aware of how messy her hair was, how dirty her clothes were. Asami had gotten cleaned up in the time Korra spent with Kuvira and Korra was suddenly very self-conscious about her own appearance.

"I probably should have grabbed clothes before I left," Korra sighed, looking back at her room. Asami rolled her eyes.

"I've got some you can wear," she said, nodding back towards her room.

"All your clothes are always too long for me," Korra said, following after her.

"Roll up the sleeves, it's not like we're going to a club downtown—because there is no more downtown I suppose—but who are you trying to impress?"

Korra laughed and Asami smiled as they walked into her room. Korra much preferred this version of her friend over the stoic and guarded one who'd cleaned up her wounds earlier. Asami rummaged for a moment in her closet.

In the three years Korra had been gone, Asami had continued to live at Air Temple Island. Korra understood the mentality. Alone in that large house was something no one would find enjoyable, especially with the memories that were connected to every piece of furniture and clothing in there. Asami had gone out and bought all new clothes after the reveal of her father.

"Here," Asami said and tossed her a pair of plain pajamas.

Despite the fact that Asami had seen her naked dozens of times while she served as her caretaker, Korra still felt inclined to turn her back as she pealed off her shirt and pants. And a prickle at her neck told her Asami was watching her, perhaps taking inventory of the damage on her bare skin. It worried Korra, just a little, how much she didn't mind.

When she turned, full dressed and folding up the loose sleeves on her arms, Asami averted her gaze.

"What's going on?" Korra said, walking over and taking a seat next to her on the bed. She bent over to begin rolling up her ankles.

"My father died."

Korra dropped the half folded cuff and sat up immediately. She felt her face go pale and her eyes go wide. Asami was blinking rapidly to hold back and onslaught and Korra was caught somewhere between hugging her and staying perfectly still.

"Asami, I…I'm so sorry."

She suddenly felt a lead ball of guilt drop in her stomach for all the defending of Kuvira she overheard out of Korra's mouth today. Asami seemed to read her thoughts.

"I don't blame Kuvira, even though I should," Asami said. "He gave up his life to make sure we had a chance against her and you stopped her, I don't care how, it's enough for me and I know it's enough for him."

Korra put a hand on Asami's arm and squeezed. She felt her relax into it but she wouldn't hug her without an invitation, not right now.

"And when we couldn't find you in the blast I was just, I got scared."

Korra recalled how fervently Asami had checked her injuries and busied herself with binding them. She squeezed her shoulder a little bit tighter and let her thumb loose to brush the skin.

"I'm proud of you Korra," Asami whispered. "For everything."

Korra smiled at the ground and went red. It was Asami's turn to give her a reassuring grip on the arm. She felt her lighten and when Korra finally met her eyes they sparkled a shade a bit closer to normal.

"Would it be too much to ask if I could crash here tonight?" Korra asked.

"What? Not exciting about bunking with the psychotic dictator?"

"It wouldn't be my first choice."

Asami just pulled back the covers on her bed and snuggled herself far across the mattress and against the wall to give Korra room to get under the covers after her. She lay on her back and relished the feeling of the pillow under her head. She was sure her eyes rolled back a bit in her head as her lids closed.

"Do I have to worry about you kicking me this time?" Asami said, her voice told Korra that she was only inches from her cheek.

"My legs are back and they have a mind of their own," Korra sighed.

She knew Asami was still watching her as she drifted off. She felt her running her fingers through her hair, perhaps to get a better look at the wound on her head, perhaps she thought Korra had fallen completely asleep. Korra didn't care either way, in the morning or months from now they could discuss exactly what the butterflies and blushing was, for now she was happy just to be asleep, warm, and safe.


End file.
